I purposefully came in here about 20 minutes ago in order to write something down and post it but now I have no idea what that thing could have been. - I have Dawn French's impersonation of Catherine Zeta Jones stuck in my head. "I got crock-shits of cash".

- Last night we watched "Haute Tension" which was all around really really good. There is no such thing as a good French Romantic Sex Comedy, so maybe they've channeled that energy into their horror/thriller genres. Who knows. I recommend getting ahold of the uncut original before it hits US theatres and gets either cut all to hell or the hype machine starts up and begins ruining it for you. (This is definitely a "the less you know, even vaguely, the better" type of movie. Well, aren't they all... but this one is moreso).

- This weekend we watched The Grudge (the american version). Yes, the music is definitely pointed and they changed some things around to provoke more response from an American audience, but the Japanese director did an incredible job of fighting the changes of the American Producers and cutting out those things that would have made it really really trite. And, I didn't even think about Buffy being in it. So that's good. It's definitely for an American audience. But if I had never seen the two "curse" movies in the Ju-On series, it would have been very entertaining and boogedy all on its own.

- We also saw eXistenZ. Karl has been trying to find the "right time right mood" to show me that movie for years now and it just never quite fit. So on Saturday we said what the hell and just watched it. I liked it a lot. Cronenberg has very specific ideas about how he wants to fuck with your specific ideas and doesn't employ a lot of subtlety to get there. It isn't delicate in any way. There's pretty much nothing to say about this unless you've seen it and then I could talk about specific bits.

- Recently we watched The Eye 2. It has nothing to do with the first movie and was about on the same level as the first as far as freaky/weird/what's going on is concerned. I think that this one was more gorey and definitely going for the jump-scares. Which it had lots of. I put these kind of movies in the guilty pleasure horror pile. If they were American movies, they're exactly the type I'd hate. Formulaic, see it a mile down the road, annoying, etc. Fortunately what's formulaic in Japan is so very not what's formulaic here so I have not yet been burned out on supernatural asian horror.

- Except for the hair thing. Why the hell are the Japanese so damned scared of hair? Is it just a "this was once attached to a person" thing or is there something else?

- I'm cleaning the house for the impending parental visit this weekend. I missed the trash pick up this morning (forgot it was today) so I can't get the trash picked up until Friday now. There is going to be the big green can plus at least another 4 bags of stuff.

- I need to mow the lawn sometime before Friday.

- I need to dust, re-arrange, go through 2 years worth of "not important enough to open right now" mail.

- I need to at least email Steph today to explain why I wasn't there for her birthday dinner (I didn't know it existed).

I remember watching that movie with a friend when I was inexhaustably drunk (Existenz, I mean). I kept making him rewind after five minutes of watching the beginning (prbably about 10 times -- no joke -- I can't believe he kept doing this faithfully for his friend) -- anyway, I enjoyed it as well -- being a minor video game dork, I was happy to see people behave live-action as they do in video games -- otherwise I saw it as kind of pointeless -- the director hitting you over and over again on the head with the literary hammer -- not sure why I'm posting this -- probably drunk and avoiding sleep -- no replies necessary

Hmm... I don't think it was hitting you over and over, I think it was the layers that were interesting. You start the film with an accepted reality, then it goes to the alternate and then "back" to the accepted, then wait... uh... is this the accepted reality, an alternate, or a different one? It wasn't done with a lot of nuance, but then, neither are video games. You're plopped into an accepted reality and as things in the game change, you adapt and accept them.

I'm one of those people that, when I'm confused about something in a movie (even when it's becuase I'm all inebriated) I just keep watching. I never would have gotten through any Quay Brothers, Svankmejer, or even something like Casshern without just accepting that I was currently confused.

the layers were *very* interesting -- that's what I really enjoyed about it -- perhaps I should have said "symbolic hammer" instead of "literary" -- I guess I get frustrated with too much symbolism -- ya know? I mean, "I get, alright? On with the show..." Regardless -- it was good. I only saw it the one time -- I suppose I just wasn't sure if the director wasn't underestimating our intelligence at points... should probably see it again.